Anna''s Outing To The Wellington Monument

A Memory of Wellington.

I have driven up and down the M5 so many times and seen a monument on top of the Blackdown Hills. Each time I passed I wondered what it was and so eventually I got hold of an Ordnance Survey map and identified it as the Wellingotn Monument. I promised myself that one day I would actually NOT drive past but I would make an outing specifically to go and see it. And so today I took my wife Elizabeth and granddaughter Anna for a picnic to Somerset.

We found a small muddy National Trust car park which was filled with half a dozen cars, then tramped along a bumpy puddle strewn track for half a mile between neglected woods towards the unseen monument. What a disappointment! Not only was the monument surrounded by bracken and trees which obscured the hoped for viewpoint over the valley to the north but the monument itself was totally enclosed within a stockade of ten feet high garishly painted steel fencing. The stone obelisk was covered in scaffolding and we were not impressed. Its only when I look at this Francis Frith view taken almost one hundred years ago that I realise just how magnificent the monument could be - an imposing stone folly on the highest land around reached by a climb through woodland.

Today's outing makes a sad contrast with past splendour.

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Added 02 September 2008

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The Monument is not as nice as it once was. The stockade John mentions has been replaced with a chain link fence. The fence is to protect the public from falling stone from the Monument. The NT are slowly repairing it but it will take time. I remember that in 2005-6 you could get a key and clime to the top of the Monument and look out the round holes at the top. The view in the 1912 photo is still there today if a little more overgrown. If you park in Wellington it is a 3 mile climb up to the Monument and although enjoyable it is a hard climb which is why people park in the car park at the top and walk the 1/2 mile through the twin rows of mature trees to the Monument at the end. It's a very popular walk with locals best done on a summers evening where you can watch the sunset.

By simon.bramley on Sun Aug 31st 2014, at 5:22 pm

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My father in the early 1920's used to be pushed in his old fashioned push-chair up to the monument from Wellington by his nanny. She must have been very fit!

By Sarah Smith on Sat Apr 14th 2018, at 8:54 pm

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I was a boarder at Blackdown School on Wellesley Park from 1943-46. Miss Eleanor Wallace was the Principal and I think there were about 10 boarders, boys and girls. There were also a number of day pupils. On a t least one occasion we had a ramble, through the wheat fields, up to the Wellington Monument. I am sure in those days there were no houses on the side of the road opposite the school. If anyone from those days reads this please contact me, David Salter, through the Website.

By eds.bath on Sat May 11th 2019, at 6:24 pm

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I also was a boarder at Blackdown school in Wellington Somerset 1943 to 1946 and should anyone wish to contact me to discuss their experiences there I can be contacted either through the website or on Bristol 0117-9571050.... Robert Jones.

By robivorjones on Fri Sep 24th 2021, at 7:52 am

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